Tara Janzen: Crazy Sweet

Crazy Sweet F+
Crazy/ Steele Street Series #6

Utterly ridiculous and atrocious!

During a secret mission gone bad, covert operator Gillian Pentycote ceased to exist. Held captive by a madman, shot full of drugs that stole her memory, Gillian survived. Now, with a new identity and nothing to lose, the woman who calls herself Red Dog has gone from bookish secretary to sizzling-hot hired gun. And she has one plan: to find the man who shattered her life and take him down for good.

Special agent Travis James has the same plan, except he has rules to follow–and using a gorgeous amnesiac as bait isn’t in them. So Travis must play a dangerous double game of his own. He knows Red Dog will do anything to lure the ultimate criminal to her side and exact revenge. But from Central America to a Colorado showdown, Travis has gotten his priorities straight. He’ll kill the bad guy, but only if he can save the beauty–and never, ever let her go.... (amazon.com)

There were so many elements of this story that I just really disliked, I think I only finished reading the story because of the introduction of Honey and C. Smith, and for the cameo of the other SDF members (yummy Christian and yummy Kid).

Element 1: Gillian is nine years older than Travis. I prefer my heroes to be older than the heroines, but I can tolerate if the heroine is a little older. But nine years, holy monkey! That’s almost a decade! Travis is just too young to be taken seriously in his role as bad-ass, shit-kicking government operator and Gillian seems too old to be lacy thong-ing Travis.

Element 2: Too much action, no romance. It’s like a speedy sex scene (which was blech, considering I don’t even like the characters) and then time for revenge. But the action scenes are haphazard and rushed. No, the entire story is that way.

Element 3: I couldn’t take Travis nor Gillian seriously. Love? What? When? There was no character development other than Travis wanting to “protect” his older lover-woman and her wanting justice for her amnesia. It’s a bad problem when the reader cannot sympathize with any of the characters.

I give it a small “+” next to the F because of C. Smith and Honey – two characters who were somewhat endearing and exciting, despite the fact that their book was a flop. I also loved Christian and everyone else’s cameo. (Well maybe not Dylan’s as much because the word “jailbait” still echoes in my head when I think of him and Skeeter.)

What a horrible read; I wanted to giggle because of the overall absurdity.

Overall, this is how I would rate the Crazy/ Steele Street Series:

Crazy Cool (book 2) and Crazy Kisses (book 4) were amazing, fast-paced, awesome, and stays in your head for a long time – even after you’ve put down the books. Christian and Kid are hotty hotties and wonderful; I even thought of trying to be a government FBI agent so that I could meet these types of real-life hotties. (lol.)

Crazy Hot (book 1) was acceptable, but nothing incredible. It’s good enough for you to continue reading the series.

Crazy Wild (book 3) was distasteful because love is nonexistent and Crazy Love (book 5) keeps on making me think of pedophiles and jailbaits.

Crazy Sweet (book 6, last) sucked and I hated it. I could have had more fun counting the number of eyebrow hairs I have on my face.

Tara Janzen: Crazy Love

Crazy Love: D
Not enough love.


Crazy Love is the fifth installment of the Steele Street/ Crazy series; the one with the badass Special Defense Force officers running around with their cool, million-horsepower cars.

As much as I tried to love Dylan and Skeeter's story, I just couldn't. I love Dylan and Skeeter separately, but them together? It just doesn't mesh right.

Dylan is back from an Indonesian island, Sumba, and has completed his mission (swiping $17 million from the warlord Hamzah Negara) but was captured and tortured before he escaped.

His latest mission is to swipe the top-secret Godwin files from a government official's home in Washington D.C.

Problem is, Creed is married and has yet to return from his ginormously long honeymoon, Hawkins' wife, Katya, is expecting their first child, Kid is gone... there is no one but Skeeter Bang to fill in as his partner.

This is something that Dylan is (honorably) vehemently opposed to because he is madly in love with her. However, knowing their age difference, not wanting to put her in danger, and not wanting to be in her presence for that long, he crosses her off from his list. However, one thing leads to another, and surprise! Baby Bang is accompanying him to D.C.

It's in D.C. that Dylan and Skeeter realize that Negara's assassins are also in town (coincidence? I think not!). Reason: Negara is pissed that Dylan made off with $17mil of his money and Tony Royce, a former FBI agent who lost his job and blames Dylan, wants revenge. Perfect!

Skeeter and Dylan attempt to retrieve the files, get ambushed, escape, and realize their love for each other in a run-down limo. Then things happen, they return, and they're in love.

Oh yea, the FNG (fucking new guy), Travis and his "love" is introduced. Actually, it's more of Travis flies in to provide back-up for Skeeter and Dylan, is picked up by SDF's leader's (General "Buck" Grant) assistant, Gillian, and have a one-night-stand in her car in a parking lot.

Lame-o.

As I've stated before, when I think of Dylan and Skeeter together, I think JAILBAIT!! I also think, "bleh" because their story just fails to draw me in.

And when I think of Trav-Trav, I think "blech." Maybe it's because Gillian is older than Travis (he's attracted to older women) and perhaps it's because they've already consummated their relationship. I don't buy that they're in love and I probably won't be won over in Trav's book, Crazy Sweet.

However, I do love Skeeter because she is so outrageous, a bit like Nikki.

Here is a description of her:
She was outrageous, the cosmic opposite of invisible. Her pink sweater was sleeveless, practically Day-Glo, and absolutely, positively laminated to her body. Her black leather miniskirt hugged her hips like a second skin. She had Chinese tattoos inked into the upper part of her right arm. Underneath her black tights, a lightning-bolt tattoo streaked up her leg from her ankle and shot over her hip, up under her arm, up around her back, and down over the top of her shoulder. He'd never seen the whole thing, couldn't see it now, but he knew it was there. She had that perfectly silky, perfectly straight, perfectly maddening platinum blond ponytail that went all the way to her butt, and every day she managed to work a little chain mail into her outfit. Today it was her belt and a knife sheath. Add the mirrored sunglasses and the ball cap and she was nothing short of a piece of work.

A piece of work with a button nose and the softest, most perfect skin he'd ever seen on a woman. She was built like a centerfold, dressed like a Goth princess, and had the face of a cherub. Every time he looked at her, he felt like the world's biggest fool.

Great, huh? She is awesome!

Dylan is hot, too.
But together, there's just not enough love.

Skip this one; you won't regret it.

Tara Janzen: Crazy Wild

Crazy Wild, nothing to go wild for: D


The Special Defense Force (SDF) is called in when suspected terrorist Dominika Starkova conceals the whereabouts of a nuclear warhead missile from several buyers whose interests are at best hostile to the U.S. Creed Rivera, surfer and pickpocket turned SDF agent, is assigned to find her and bring her in. But Dominika is actually librarian Cordelia "Cody" Stark from Wichita, who wanted to meet her real father, whose legacy to her was knowledge of the bomb's whereabouts. The CIA is also looking for Cody and trying to get SDF to back off, so the plot changes moment by moment from Creed and Cody's insane escape from the library, pursued by terrorists, the Denver police, and the CIA. Ultimately, the bad guys get theirs, and Creed and Cody become passionate lovers before she is arrested.


Sadly enough, Janzen is unable to make me go wild for Creed and Cody – her implausible plot turns out to be… implausible and the story is somewhat of a drag.

When I first picked Crazy Wild up, I didn’t care about Creed. Who’s Creed? Oh yea, that guy who was working with JT and got beaten up. I put down the book still not caring about Creed.

Creed has returned, after having witnessed the death of JT and is (logically) tormented. He is therefore given an “easy” job of looking after Cody, or Dominika, a supposed terrorist who knows the location of a hidden nuclear bomb.

They venture the streets of Denver and go through the attacks of multiple terrorist attacks, all of whom want to know the location of the bomb.

Things happen, people shoot at each other, Creed and Cody “fall in love,” people get caught, terrorists lose and the good people win… etc etc etc.

The romance is non-existent and after running through the streets with Cody and Creed (three hundred and something pages worth of running through and adventuring), I didn’t find their attraction believable and I didn’t find their romance to be romantic. While Janzen might have been able to pull this off for another couple, it didn’t work here.

Furthermore, the story introduced the to-be couple – Skeeter and Dylan, and as much as I love Dylan and Skeeter separately, when I read of them having feelings for each other, I get the heebie-jeebies and immediately think, “JAILBAIT!” I’m interested to see how Janzen pulls it off (or doesn’t).

Conclusion: Not worth a read. Who cares about them? Not I!

Tara Janzen: CRAZY COOL

Crazy Cool: A


She's sizzling hot.
He's icy cool...

He called her Bad Luck Dekker, a gorgeous socialite who trailed trouble in her wake. Christian Hawkins should know. Thirteen years ago he saved Kat Dekker's life - only to spend two years in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Now it's deja vu all over again when he rescues Kat from an explosion that rips through a Denver art auction. This time Christian - now an operative with an elite U.S. task force - plans to keep her close until he figures out why somebody wants to kill her. That is, if he can keep his cool around this sizzling-hot lady...



I lurve this book - it beats Crazy Hot out of the waters! Not only am I completely and totally intrigued by Kid and Nikki, I found Kat and Christian to be a completely lovable hero-and-heroine pair.

Christian and Dylan are in the South Americas doing their SDF work when they get pulled out and are mandated to be bodyguards at a Denver art auction. They're royally pissed since Creed and J.T. are missing and presumed dead. They want to help search for the rest of their friends, but higher powers call and they are called to obey.

The art auction is one that Katya Dekker is in charge of, the woman that Christian fell in love with thirteen years ago and never quite got over her. When a bomb goes off at the auction, he has to keep Kat safe. With Kat comes a nightmare that Christian thought he overcame - he was framed for committing a murder thirteen years ago and his framers are after him - again!

It is in the midst of trying to get to the bottom of the Prom King Murder mystery and trying to find JT and Creed that sparks fly between Kat and Christian.

Their passion and love is explosive and hot. Not only that, but the secondary story of Kid and Nikki is fabulous. Surprisingly, Kid and Nikki's story does not detract from Christian's and the flip from different scenes create the fast rhythm of getting through the story.

I picked up this story at approximately 11:30pm -- and finished it within four hours and fifteen minutes at 3:45 am. I could not put the book down -- I needed to know more! Who cared about the freaking Prom King mystery - what was going on with Kat and Christian? And then Kit and Nikki. Oh gosh!!

It was with that mindset I whizzed through the story.

I must admit, while I am not excited for the next story - Creed's - it only makes sense, something I realize only because I've already devoured Kid's story (a couple nights ago).

Fast-paced and intensely sexy-hot, this is a definite must-read! (But skip Crazy Hot, it's not worth your time).

Tara Janzen: On the Loose

On the Loose: C-


He's a special agent who never loses his cool.

She's the heat-seeking missle headed straight for his heart.

Keeping cool under pressure is the credo C. Smith Rydell lives by. That’s why he was handpicked by the Special Defense Forces for a mission few men survive. So why has the ex-DEA superstar been reassigned to Panama City, playing bodyguard to a blond in a black string bikini? Except Honey York isn’t your average pampered socialite. She’s the woman Rydell caught smuggling cash into El Salvador four months ago. And now she wants him to take her back.

All Honey has to do is find the guerrilla camp, deliver the goods, and get the hell out of the jungle—all in forty-eight hours. Only one man is up for the job. But sharing an unforgettable one-night stand was nothing next to being stranded with Rydell on some third world mountaintop. And with bullets flying and all hell breaking loose, now is not the time for passion. As if these two could possibly resist it….

I read this book for a book club and at the end of the book, I wasn’t sure if I really knew what the book was about. Tara Janzen continues her Steele street series with this seventh book and unsurprisingly, the number of plotlines and secondary storylines in the book were ridiculous.

Honey and her five Louis Vuitton bags need to get into El Salvador. She is working with the U.S. government in order to help her sister, who is a nun in an impoverished village in El Salvador. Her mission is to go in, give her bags to a drug lord named Alejandro Campos, who in return was to take her to the rebel group leader (Diego?) so that she can give him the 2million dollars and in return, retrieve an especially important USB flashdrive.

Along with this is an impregnated nun, a terrified but part-of-the-scene history teacher from the United States who records everything, and there’s the badass Russian Irena, C. Smith Rydell’s former lover, who is back to destroy Smith and Honey.

It is in the midst of this and crazy El Salvadoran downpour, that Honey and Smith realize their love for each other.

The one scene that they end up together is the one scene in the entire book that they have to themselves; all other scenes are riddled with planes, guns, nuns, rebels, and… no romance. It would be an understatement to state that there was no love and no romance in the book.

What On the Loose proved to be was a rebel-military-top US government-secret espionage and military combat book with one sex scene (where afterwards, the hero and heroine realize their love for each other).

Silly and convoluted plots rule this book and because of the convoluted plot, the first half of the book is a rocky read.

Tara Janzen: Crazy Hot

Crazy Hot: C

Love has never been this wild.
This Dangerous.
This Hot.

Only the most dire emergency could send paleontologist Regan McKinney racing across the West in search of a man. But her grandfather has vanished, and Quinn Younger could be the missing link. What the bad-boy-turned-American-hero is doing in a deserted tumbleweed town is an even bigger mystery…until danger trails Regan into Cisco, Utah, and the sexy air-force pilot becomes her sole hope of survival…

And thus starts Janzen’s Crazy series. It seems as if Ms. Janzen is in over her head, bringing in paleontologists, chop shop ex-juvie boys, and Special Defense Forces (a special, super-elite group of the CIA…or FBI), but amazingly enough, the plotlines come together in a rather jumbled sort of way.

Regan McKinney is in search of her aging grandfather and ventures to Cisco, Utah in order to find him. Instead, she finds sexy Quinn Younger, the boy whose had a crush on her ever since he walked in on her almost naked body while he and the other chop shop juvie boys were serving their penance by working for her grandfather. (Confused yet?)

Meanwhile, Regan’s grandfather, Wilson, discovers an exotic species of Tarbosaurus eggs – intact and fossilized. Because Quinn’s team of Special Op Forces require Wilson’s expertise on a boatload of old bones they’ve intercepted (accidentally) while trying to intercept guns, missiles, and other weapons.

The bad guys come in when it is found that the Tarbosaurus eggs are encased in diamonds – the diamonds that the bad guys want.

So it’s with that Regan and Quinn are heading back to Colorado in Quinn’s sexy car. In between chasing after the bad guys, making hot and crazy love, going to Steele Street, Denver CO, it’s almost too much.

The bad guys aren’t quite bad enough to be intriguing, and the story long and roundabout. The chemistry between the hero and heroine was there, but something was missing to keep the reader’s interest.

However, the one thing that saved Crazy Hot was the introduction of Regan’s crazy little sister Nikki and Peter “Kid Chaos” Chronopolous. Their meeting, though it was several pages, was enough to make the reader want more. It came to the point where all I wanted to do was skim through the pages with the bones, the grandfather, Regan and Quinn, and snuggle up to the secondary story with Nikki and Kid.